Ethnic differences in tipping: A matter of familiarity with tipping norms

Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly

Volumn 45, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 12-22

  Lynn, Michael ^a  

^a and Design   (United States)

Author keywords

Ethnic; Minorities; Restaurants; Tipping

Indexed keywords

EID: 3242769226     PISSN: 00108804     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0010880403260101     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. See: M. Clary, "Unusual Dinner Tab Brings Outcry over Stigma of 'Dining While Black,'" Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1999, p. A33.
2. None of the servers classified whites as poor tippers.
3. See: Suzie Amer, "Minority Report," Restaurant Business, November 15, 2002, pp. 27-38.
4. For current tipping norms, see: Judith Martin, Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium (New York: Pharos Books, 1988), p. 374.
5. Judith Martin, Global Road Warrior, Version 3.0 (Novato, CA: World Trade Press, January 17, 2002).
6. Judith Martin, How to Tip (New York: Fodor's Travel Publications, 2002), p. 5.
7. See: Michael Lynn and Clorice Thomas-Haysbert, "Ethnic Differences in Tipping: Evidence, Explanations, and Implications," Journal of Applied Social Psychology (in press).
8. Michael Lynn, "Black-White Differences in Tipping Various Service Providers," Journal of Applied Social Psychology (in press). Working drafts of both papers are available online at www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/research/working/.
9. In another study, black-white differences in tipping were found when respondents were asked how much they tipped waiters and waitresses who provided good service. See: Lynn (in press).
10. Tips are only weakly related to customers' evaluations of the service among all consumers, not just among blacks. See: Michael Lynn, "Restaurant Tipping and Service Quality: A Tenuous Relationship," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 1 (January 2001), pp. 14-20.
11. See: Rita Rousseau, "Feeding the New America," Restaurants & Institutions, February 15, 1997, pp. 28-42.
12. Jeffrey Humphreys, "The Multicultural Economy 2002," Georgia Business and Economic Conditions, vol. 62, no. 2 (2002), pp. 1-27.
13. I b i d.
14. See: Russell Mokhiber, "The Ten Worst Corporations of 1994," in Multinational Monitor's Corporate Rap Sheet, www.ratical.org/corporations/mm10worst94.html. {Seen when, Mike?}
15. The NAACP has named Denny's James Adamson as CEO of the Year and has repeatedly given Denny's its "Fair-share Corporate Award for Minority Business Development." See: James Adamson, "The Denny's Discrimination Story - And Ways to Avoid it in Your Operation," Nation's Restaurant News, October 5, 1998, p. 40.
16. See: Larouche v. Denny's Inc., Case no. 98-0654-Civ-Seitz, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, 62F. Supp. 2d 1375; 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13063, August 19, 1999. Also see: Charity v. Denny's Inc., Civ. Action no. 98-0554 Section " c," U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Louisiana, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11462, July 26, 1999.
17. See: Richard Lezin Jones, "NAACP Joins Race-bias Suit against Cracker Barrel," The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1999.
18. Richard Lezin Jones, "NAACP Joins Lawsuit Against Cracker Barrel," in Legal Monitor, http://www.restaurant.org/legal/lm/lm2002_05.cfm (as viewed on May 2002).
19. James Thorner, "Local Witnesses Divided on Cracker Barrel Law Suit," St. Petersburg Times, December 15, 2001, p. 1E.
20. See: Timothy Hinkin and Bruce Tracey, "The Cost of Turnover," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3 (June 2000), pp. 14-21.
21. Amer, pp. 27-38.
22. See: Linda Wallace, "The Restaurant Wars: Dare To Go Where No Broker Has Gone Before," DiversityInc.com, August 9, 2001
23. Amer, pp. 27-38.
24. See James Adamson, "The Denny's Discrimination Story - And Ways to Avoid it in Your Operation," Nation's Restaurant News, October 5, 1998, p. 40.
25. The inability to perfectly monitor server treatment of black customers is probably one reason that Denny's continues to be named in lawsuits alleging discrimination against black patrons (see note 12).
26. Amer, pp. 27-38.
27. See: Susan Mills and Hudson Riehle, "What Customers Think About Tips versus Service Charges," Restaurants USA, October 1987, pp. 20-22.
28. Joe Edwards, "NRN Survey: Tips Beat Service Charges 5-to- 1," Nation's Restaurant News, vol. 22, no. 27 (July 4, 1988), pp. 1, 84.
29. Wendy Cole, "Leaving Tips," Time, February 27, 1989, p. 54.
30. See: Lynn (in press).
31. Lynn and Thomas-Haysbert (in press).
32. See: Lynn and Thomas-Haysbert (in press).
33. Some categories used by the interviewers have been combined for ease of reporting. For example, the "less than 15%" category combines the following two categories: "less than 10" and "10 to 14 percent." Refusals to answer the question were counted as missing values.
34. 2 (5) of 71.41 (p < .001).
35. Conclusion based on a binomial logistic regression analysis that produced a Wald statistic (1) of 24.52 (p < .001).
36. Conclusion based on separate binomial logistic regression analyses in which all Wald statistics (1) were greater than 3.61 (p < .06).
37. See: Robert Cialdini and Melanie Trost, "Social Influence: Social Norms, Conformity, and Compliance," in The Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th ed., vol. 2, edited by D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, and G. Lindzey (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), pp. 151-92.
38. As a general rule, expert opinions are not a reliable guide to the effectiveness of marketing and promotional campaigns. That is why most marketing campaigns fail. See: Kevin Clancy and Peter Krieg, Counter-Intuitive Marketing (New York: Free Press, 2000), pp. 21-27.
39. See: Ann Lynn and Michael Lynn, "Experiments and Quasi-Experiments: Tools for Evaluating Marketing Options," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 2 (April 2003), pp. 75-84.
40. Renee Bator and Robert Cialdini, "The Application of Persuasion Theory to the Development of Effective Proenvironmental Public Service Announcements," Journal of Social Issues, vol. 56, no. 3 (2000), pp. 527-41.
41. See: Amanda Hesser, "At Tip Time, Restaurants Do the Math," New York Times, April 7, 1999, p. F1.
42. Florence Fabricant, "Tips Past the Tipping Point," New York Times, September 25, 2002, p. F1.
43. The study found that providing tipping guidelines increased some people's tips but decreased others' tips, so there was no net effect on tip size. See: David Strohmetz and Bruce Rind, "The Impact of Tipping Recommendations on Tip Levels," Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3 (June 2001), pp. 71-73.
44. This game is based on a similar game that is actually played at John Thomas Steakhouse in Ithaca, New York. However, the restaurant's management allows all guests to play the game regardless of how they tip.
45. Information about Rita Booker is drawn from from: Wallace, op. cit.
46. See: Jordan Pine, "Tavis Smiley on Restaurant Tipping: DiversityInc.com's His News Source," July 25, 2001, DiversityInc.com.
47. The session, titled "Minorites Don't Tip! Fact or Fiction?", featured presentations by Cornell Barnett (owner-operator of Outback restaurants), Joseph Jackson (director of inclusion at Outback), Laura Kornegay (college and diversity recruiter at Carlson Restaurants), and me.